Resurrection of New Mexico State Police SSP Unit 130

[CNTLOSE]

This thread will be dedicated to the resurrection on NMSP SSP Unit 130. Many of you know I have always been on the look out for a rare SSP with some history since shortly after coming into the hobby. I am proud to say I have found it with this SSP.

This unit served with the NMSP from May of 1990 until August of 1993. Unit 130 was driven by Trooper Edward Espinoza. His duty station was Anthony, NM just south of Las Cruces, NM. Unit 130 and Unit 125 were the only two marked units of the six 1990 SSP's ran by NMSP. Each Trooper had to receive special training before hitting the streets with them. Below is an inservice photo of Unit 130 at this training with Tpr. Espinoza.

I purchased this car in July of 2012 and have been collecting as much information on the NMSP SSP program as possible. I have manged to make friends with the Trooper assigned to Unit 125 (The other marked unit.) and one of the unmarked SSP's. They have provided me with a wealth of informaiton. I also have made friends with another NMSP Trooper who is more or less a historian of the NMSP and is who sent me the inservice photos of Unit 130. I am sad to say Tpr. Espinoza died on duty due to medical reasons. However as shared in the purchase thread of this SSP, all of Tpr. Espinoza's cruisers were called "Ant" because an ant can carry 50 times its weight...and Tpr. Espinoza was a large man as seen below in another inservice photo.

After I purchased this unit and began discovering her history. After service she had a hard life. She was in a minor front in collision at some point and the entire car was sprayed with the thinest layer of black paint possible. No prep work at all, just spray painted. The car did however remain all stock, including the air silencer. The car was last registered in 2003 and expired in 2004. Since then she had been sitting in a garage feeding mice her interior. The car was rescued by a couple with the intentions to restore it, but not as an SSP but as a performance modified coupe. They realized it was a bigger project than they wanted so they parted with it. In the deal included was the maintenance sheet from the NMSP and an original key stamped "130"

So today I went into the garage and said today is the day we get this project started!